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Thursday, June 23, 2011

They put an announcement up in the plane before we left and said that New York immigration and boarder control were trying something different, and that if we have a flight within the next 2 – 3 hours we should get a “move-quick” sign from the guy as we walked into the airport to help make POE go faster.

I knew my flight wasn’t until 18:35pm which wasn’t 2 – 3 hours time, but I took my chance anyways (lol). I asked the guy if I’d need one and he said “yes darling cutie – you would definitely need one”, I was like OKAY??, haha… anyways I was quite chuffed about that, so I went to the next guy standing next to the red and yellow “move-quick” sign and I ended up being second in line at the number I was told to go to (number 42 :)).

It took me probably 15 min to get through. The guy I go was awesome, he didn’t really know what to do with a K-1 visa, so he went to ask the next guy and he told him what to do. He then went over and over and over my papers that were sealed in an envelope… Then stamped behind the front page and stamped my passport. He then gave me all the papers and told me to go right down to the end and they would complete my process. So I walked to the end, the officer told me to go down a long area they had “taped” off in the area to collect luggage, and had to go to the end again and hand in my papers. The officer that took my things was really awesome, he took the papers and my passport from me and said “you look so tired” so I said yes, after flying for 22 hours in total (besides layovers), I am overly exhausted, and he said woah okay and we laughed and I went to sit down. He put my things into a folder and put it onto the desk with another officer next to his. I waited there for about 15 min. One guy was being questioned like you cannot believe by the one officer, after about 10 min of being questioned the officer asked him for his luggage to search it. I started to stress out, I got so nervous! But when I thought about it, he didn’t really know what to answer to the officers questions and kept repeating his answers – think the officer didn’t know what he was doing, or the guy was being truthful and getting annoyed at the same or similar questions being asked! Three people got called up to the officer that got my papers, and were questioned a bit, then the one officer called my name and gave me my passport, I went up and he gave me my passport. I think he saw my confused face and he said to me “it’s okay, you good to go, welcome to the US and enjoy” and smiled, and I was off to get my bags…

Once I got my bags I ended up having to get into another line. When I was waiting a lady officer pulled a guy aside (looked like he was from Nigeria too), and started questioning him, asking him what work he does, he kinda gave an arb answer and she said but what work is it sir, then he replied and she then asked him to go with him. That again made me start stressing… But I got through with no problems. When I got to the next officer, I handed in one of my forms. He looked at my bags said “very interestingly colourful bags” then I said “thank you”, then he asked where I’m coming from, so I said South Africa, he nodded and said “aaah okay, and what are you bringing in those bags” so I said “all my belongings”, then he smiled and said “oh okay, whyyyy?”, so I said “coz I’m getting married!” then he smiled, said “oh wow! Congratulations cutie and welcome to the United States of America”… Lol, is it a common thing for Americans to call people “cutie”?? When I went through to the door to go to transfers (flight transfers) I saw that guy that was being questioned by the lady officer having his bags searched – she was taking EVERYTHING out his bags…

Anyways I then went through to search for my next flight and which terminal I had to go to.

JFK is so ENORMOUS!! I had to go to terminal 2, so I had to go upstairs, and get onto the Airtrain (wow!), then walk over the road (?_?) and then upstairs again for departures. I then had to go through security AGAIN… But all was good so I went through with no problems (YAY!). I then had to find gate 28 and then wait till my flights departure. I saw a different destination on the board, so went to ask if this is the place that leaves for Detroit but it wasn’t, it was changed to gate 27 (luckily I asked), so I went over to gate 27, and waited. I was so tired it wasn’t even funny, I just wanted to lie down and sleep. Finally we could board at 18:00pm, but then when we were all seated on the plane we had to wait for water for the plane (to drink), wait for the luggage to be packed etc etc., so we only ended up leaving after 19:00pm.

Eventually I got to Detroit at 20:45pm. It was such a long walk to get the baggage it took me 15 min (with the move and walk things), that by the time I got to the baggage area and looked for where my baggage was, Dustin had already got my bags and was waiting for me. FINALLY I was going to be able to SLEEP! Did take forever to get to the place though. We got to the place, I got sorted out and went straight to sleep! I slept and slept and slept till after 11am (haha), but was still so exhausted…

I started by changing money into Durhim (spell) for my wait in Dubai and some US Dollars....

Durhims...

US Dollars...

Start Of My Journey...

We got to the airport about half an hour earlier than we thought, so we waited a bit until I could check in. When I went to check in, I had some woman that very apparently didn’t know what she was doing. First she didn’t know where Detroit, Michigan was when I told her that’s where I was flying too. Then she kept asking me on separate occasions for a telephone number, then address, then city, then state to be written down on a piece of paper. She “messed” around on the computer for a while and again asked me where I was flying too. So I told her again. Then she told me I don’t have a passport. I was like WHAT!? are you serious!! Who the heck would fly to America if they didn’t have a passport?? Anyways I then showed her my visa and then she was like oh ok and carried on. It took forever to get checked in!

It was then time for me to leave… It was very emotional for me to say goodbye again after so long! I had dosed up on Rescue though (lol), so I think I could have been worse than I was. The new airport in Durban is massively huge, it was such a along walk to my gate, I thought the walk would never end! The boarding was delayed for some reason, so instead of flying at 18:35pm we only left after 19:00pm. I was sitting in the middle of the plane on the isle seat. Two guys were sitting in the middle, and before we flew, one of the air hostesses came to tell them that there were two seats available next to their family members, and that they could go and sit with them. I kept saying to myself “please let them go, please let them go” and they did! I then had four seats all to myself! Woohoo! But I didn’t get to sleep much anyway – it is always so uncomfortable to sleep in planes. The food was REALLY good (I flew with Emirates). We all go given our own MENU’s, lol… I was very impressed with the food, the only thing, was that we were served dinner at about 8:30pm and then got given a continental breakfast at 3:30am, we only finished dinner at like 9:30pm!

Snack Just After Departing Durban...

The Items We Got Onboard...

The TV Screen, Controls and Phone :D...

Our Dinner We Got. I Chose The Beef...

Then The Continental Breakfast We Got Served...

We got to Dubai at about 5:00pm (their time), the airport is huge and really sparkly and pretty. I took a few pictures here and there. The duty free stores are really awesome, there were perfumes in the one that I wanted to get – they were pretty cheap but I didn’t want to have to cart it with me, so decided not to get one (BIG accomplishment! Lol).

Dubai International Airport...

This is a HUGE "waterfall" when you go to the lifts to go into the next lot of security...

The HUGE Lift!! It's Like Walking Into A Huge Moving Room, LOL...

Yes I Know, Pretty Random, But I Couldn't Help But Laugh And Take A Pic...

More Of The Airport While I Waited For My Next Flight...

Mountain Dew...

LOL I Took A Pic Of The Time While I Was Waiting...

While I waited for my next flight I was really dreading it! A 13hr 40min flight was going to kill me for sure…

We eventually could go through to the wait at the gate. We had to go downstairs to the lowest level of the airport, and then the entrance to the plane was an incline, haha...

Tried To Get A Good Pic Of The Plane For Scott, But They Wouldn't Allow Me Too...

This time I was on the side of the plane with 3 seats instead of in the middle with four seats. THIS plane was a “double storey” plane, I was like “WHOAH!!”… I tried to take a pic for Scott but they wouldn’t allow me for some reason so I got a weird pic of the windows – at least it shows the “double storey” :) The trip was painfully long, like REALLY… it felt like it would never end! The lady that was sitting in the window seat was flying from Nigeria to visit New York – kinda weird (won’t put why I think it’s weird on here but ya, it seemed weird)… She didn’t close the window blind once the entire way, was SO frustrating – although we did get eye cover up things, it still didn’t help much… Not that I could sleep anyways… Finally we arrived in New York at 14:30pm.

By this time I was completely exhausted (at the point where I wanted to cry!), but I still had a ways to go with P.O.E ect.

Otherwise the longest part of my trip had ended and I was happy to be back on USA soil!!